Valuation of Citizenship

[PikeStance]

Valuation of Citizenship

The Context for this thread comes from here..., Promoting the Curia

I have included the post I was responding to as a point of reference.

What is the value of citizenship. If it has little or no value, then why perpetuate it; we should abolish it completely.

Does citizenship have value? Some would argue it is irrelevant. However, the vast majority of contributors are citizens. This makes sense. Citizens on average have been on the site longer and have developed a stronger stake in the forum/ site. The most experience members who are not citizens are either former citizens or have rejected it for a variety of valid reasons. However, many of members through the amount time invested on the forum has become stakeholders. It is either through their own poor behavior and the lack of patronages that has excluded them from being part of the group.

The question to be asked, if members are choosing to not be citizens, then we need to ask why?

Once upon a time, members would post an interest in citizenship and request a patron. (I know this because this was actually mentioned by one of the admins in post I recently read back in 2004. Flash forward to 2011 and I run across a wiki that members can inquire about citizenship. I did and boy did I get a rude awakening. A total 180 different in attitude in a 10 year span. The uber elitism of citizenship is itself a detriment.

So, we have a choice- Either we accept its irrelevance and abolish citizenship or we restore it to what it was when it was created and hope that this could spark a Neo-Renaissance for the site. Alternatively, we can take our chances that individuals would just do things, but this sites growth, for better or for worse, benefited from the institution of citizenship as noted above.

Ask yourself these questions;

1. Why are you a citizen?
2. How has the forum benefited from your citizenship?
3. If you value your citizenship, why have you not "pass on" your status to another member?
4. If you did, why have patronized a member of the site? Would you do it again?
5. Again, if we do not value citizenship, then why keep it? Is it the badge that we value? If so, why is the badge that important to you?

Please do share your thoughts.